Krishnashtami - Movie Review

What's it about?

The movie is about an NRI's journey from USA to India. A well-settled young guy in USA Krishna Vara Prasad (Sunil) longs to come to India, his birthplace. While his uncle (Mukesh Rishi) opposes his plans, his aunt wants to see him as he has not stepped in their home for 18 years. Without informing his uncle, Krishna flies to India. His connecting flight in Europe gets canceled and at the airport he meets a guy (Ajay) and his young son as well as a beauty Pallavi (Nikki).

Once he lands in India, some goons’ attack his car in which he is traveling along with his friend, and the guy whom he met at the airport. This incident takes his life into a vortex of a drama.

Analysis

Exactly fifteen minutes into the movie, you can easily guess where this movie is heading to and how exactly it is going to end. Such is the clichéd storyline and the formulaic scenes it is filled with. We have seen many films with simple template of mass movies. But 'Krishnashtami' takes the cake. It seems like the writing team wanted to take a scene from each big hits in the recent past and make a different movie of it. But they ended up writing what we have seen already. This would have been excusable if it is told in an entertaining way or if the emotional buttons are played right.

While Sunil has not done any comic sequences, Saptagiri and Brahmanandam with inane sequences fail to provide any entertainment. Screenplay is shoddy to say the least. A pre-interval sequence of Ajay telling his story and the attack happening is quite good. The climax scene is also neat. Apart from these two episodes, nothing excites or entertains.

Sunil has looked so worn out. He should focus on doing comedy, which is his forte, instead of serious heroic roles that have weak characterization. Both Nikki and Dimple's characters are poorly written. Ajay in a brief role is good. The kid who played Ajay's son is cute. Among other cast members, Pavitra Lokesh makes some impact. Mukesh Rishi and Asuthosh Rana have done a neat job.

Like all Dil Raju's productions, 'Krishnashtami' has good production and technical values. Cinematography by Chota K Naidu is an asset. Music is not up to the mark. Art work is decent.

Despite the movie having crisp runtime of 140 minutes, the predictable screenplay makes the movie very lengthy. Vasu Varma, the movie's director has failed once again in executing a decent movie. If not for Dil Raju's production values, the film would have looked even shoddier.

Bottom-line: 'Krishnashtami' is old wine in old bottle. A mix of many stories, the narration is filled with plenty of clichés.